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Family portrait: the Weston family

By James Beech

High street shoppers worldwide may not have heard of the transatlantic Weston family but they certainly will have heard of the brands owned or controlled by the Irish/Canadian clan: Ryvita, Twinings, Ovaltine, Silver Spoon, Mazola, Illovo, Tip Top, Primark, plus the upmarket department stores Holt Renfrew in Canada, de Bijenkorf in the Netherlands, Brown Thomas in Ireland and both Fortnum & Mason and Selfridges in London. Their parent Canadian food and retail operation George Weston is Canada's largest private sector employer with more than 200,000 employees in the Loblaws supermarket chain, Weston Foods and Shoppers Drug Mart. Galen Weston and family, of Toronto, have a net worth of $9.2 billion and are ranked #116 on Forbes' list of The World's Billionaires, up from #131 in 2015, and #2 in Canada. The Garfield Weston Foundation owns 79.2% of the family's holding company Wittington Investments Ltd, which is also the holding company of Associated British Foods, the grocery, sugar, agriculture, ingredients and retail giant worth £13.4 billion ($16.6 billion) and employer of 130,000 employees in 50 countries.

 

Alternatively, read the Weston family portrait here

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